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Unwary purchase of art objects
What is the reckless purchase of art and collectibles? This is the misdemeanor crime of "purchasing items of suspicious origin" if the object is art and/or collectibles. The penal code establishes that the following are liable for this crime: anyone who purchases or receives items that, for various reasons, may be suspected of being derived from a crime, without first having ascertained their legitimate provenance. anyone who arranges for the purchase or receipt of such things, without first verifying their origin. Before proceeding with the purchase, a buyer must check whether the art objects in question are equipped with all the necessary documentation. To be charged, the perpetrator must engage in negligent conduct: recklessness, negligence, or failure to take all necessary precautions can be punished with imprisonment for up to six months, plus a possible fine. Article 712 of the Criminal Code. Art. 712 - Purchase of things of suspicious origin which states: "Whoever, without first ascertaining their legitimate origin, purchases or receives, for any reason, items that, due to their quality, the status of the person offering them, or the amount of the price, give reason to suspect that they are the result of a crime, shall be punished by imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of not less than ten euros. Anyone who arranges to purchase or receive, for any reason, any of the above-mentioned items without first ascertaining their legitimate origin shall be subject to the same penalty." Imprudent purchase or receiving stolen goods (art. 648) are the crimes that antique dealers, and not only them, fear most. The number of stolen works still in circulation, as provided by the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Artistic Heritage, exceeds 300,000. A huge number! The underground market changes shape and moves very quickly, but above all it causes works to move rapidly, often from one part of the globe to another. We can't stress this enough: you always need to check your documentation carefully. Happy shopping!
Certificate of free circulation for art objects and collectibles
What is the free movement certificate? This is an authorization, granted by the competent export office, which allows the permanent exit of certain works of art from our country and their circulation within the Community, for commercial reasons, without thereby causing damage to the integrity of Italy's national cultural heritage. However, issuing the certificate alone does not permit the work to leave the European Union: in this case, an export license is also required. Artworks for which a certificate of free circulation is required may belong to anyone, be of cultural interest, are by a deceased artist, and were created more than 70 years ago. What is the practical process for obtaining a free movement certificate? Anyone interested in permanently exporting a work of art from Italy must report it to the relevant export office. The report must contain the following information: market value of each work, name, surname, and address of the owner, destination of the work, name, surname, and address of the recipient. Within 3 days of the report, the export office, after examining the work, notifies several ministerial offices (Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage), which must carry out the appropriate investigations and communicate any useful information collected to the export office within 10 days. In most cases, the procedure is concluded within 40 days of filing the complaint and the interested party is notified of the outcome. If within the same forty days the export office proposes to the Ministry to purchase the work (at a price corresponding to the declared market value), the deadline for issuing the certificate is extended by a further sixty days. The owner of the artwork can always avoid forced purchase by the State by renouncing export. The consequences of a denial of the certificate are easily explained: the work's inability to leave our country and its exposure to various restrictions.
Counterfeiting, alteration and reproduction of works of art
Counterfeiting, alteration, and reproduction of works of art: let's make a distinction and understand them better. With these terms we speak of the various hypotheses of crime that can be grouped under the common name of counterfeiting of works of art or, more generally, art forgeries. Let's examine in detail the three different criminal offences covered by the Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code: counterfeiting, alteration, and reproduction of works of art. The first term refers in particular to the activity that leads to the production of a totally false work of art. The term alteration, on the other hand, refers to an intervention capable of modifying an original work of art in a way that is not compliant with or in any case alien to the author's will. Finally, reproduction refers to the activity aimed at obtaining a copy of an original work of art, in order to place it on the market as authentic. Let's see when the three behaviors just described are taken into consideration: In the event that, for the purpose of making a profit, someone materially proceeds to the counterfeiting, alteration or reproduction of a work of art. In the event that, even without directly participating in the activities described in point 1, someone places on the market, or in any case puts into circulation, the works derived therefrom, passing them off as authentic, with the aim of making a profit. In all these cases, knowing of the falsity, a person works to authenticate counterfeit, altered, or reproduced works of art, or in any case accredits them or contributes to accrediting them as authentic through declarations, appraisals, publications, or the affixing of stamps. For all conduct covered by this law, the penalty is imprisonment from three months to four years and a fine from 103 to 3,099 euros, which may be increased if the acts are committed in the exercise of a commercial activity. In this last case, the conviction is also accompanied by the accessory penalty of professional disqualification. Finally, all the criminal hypotheses just seen can concur with both the crime of fraud and that of receiving stolen goods. Our heartfelt advice is to never get involved in these shady deals!
Schifano's Fakes, Coffee in Bari
Carabinieri officers from the Bari Cultural Heritage Protection Unit seized 386 paintings falsely attributed to artists such as Schifano, Caffè, Scheggi, Vasarely, Borghese, Alinari, Dorazio, and Guidi. The operation was ordered to combat the "widespread" phenomenon—the Bari Prosecutor's Office explained in a statement—of art counterfeiting. The investigation identified 35 individuals, all working in various capacities in the art world, as being involved in the counterfeiting activity. Fourteen of them were also charged with conspiracy. The curator of one of the artists' archives is implicated in the investigation, as he is responsible for forging the certificates of authenticity accompanying the artworks to certify their authenticity and for changing their archive number. The forger responsible for faithfully reproducing the original works has also been identified. A further 12 searches were carried out and the seizure of the four general catalogues of works by the artist Nino Caffè was ordered nationwide. The publisher, implicated in the affair, promoted the false authenticity of the works by publishing them in the official catalogue, following prior agreements with the curator and the payment of significant sums by unsuspecting, good-faith buyers. "The investigation," explains the Bari Public Prosecutor's Office, "has covered the entire country and is ongoing with the aim of purging the art market of all the works released in the meantime by those responsible." The price the seized paintings would have commanded if they had been put on the market is estimated at between €800,000 and €900,000. In addition to the works, 2,736 general catalogues were also seized. During the investigation, the military seized the preparatory drawings for some works, paintings on easels with the paint still wet, and the programs for creating the works of art were found on some computers. Bari city
The rebirth of Schifano
For several years now, the art world has been quietly reevaluating Mario Schifano's work. Mr. Larry Gagosian appears to have combed Rome for the most interesting historical works, and he's not alone. The catalogue raisonné is in progress, and finally, a renewed appreciation for the work of the eclectic Roman artist is bringing order and rigor. If you own a work from the 60s, a "Palm", an "Esso", a TV from the 70s, this could be the right time (provided that the work in question has the documents in order) You can consult the official archive here: http://www.marioschifano.it/ As is known, legal proceedings have been initiated in the courts of Rome and Milan to clarify the confusion of attributions that has arisen since Schifano's death in 1998 between the Foundation and the Archive. Therefore, collectors reading this and interested in selling a work by Schifano should know that to initiate the request for an Authentication and Archiving Opinion, they must submit the documentation and materials listed in the Regulations to the Mario Schifano Archive, exclusively by mail and in paper format . The Committee, after examining the submitted material, reserves the right to request a direct analysis of the work if this is not sufficient to formulate an Authentication Opinion. In this case, the Archive will schedule an appointment with the collector or applicant. The committee's members include Achille Bonito Oliva, Marco Meneguzzo, Rinaldo Rossi, and Laura Cherubini. Recent news is the entry into the scientific committee of Giorgio Marconi , a historic Milanese gallery owner who has worked closely with Schifano since 1965 (the year the gallery opened). Here now, for those who would like to delve deeper, some brief historical-biographical information. Mario Schifano (Homs, Libya, 1934 - 1998, Rome) made his debut with the 1960 exhibition at the Salita in Rome, presented by Pierre Restany : Five Roman Painters: Angeli, Festa, Lo Savio, Schifano, Uncini. He attracted critical attention with his monochrome paintings that suggested a screen that would later accommodate numbers, letters, road signs, and the Esso and Coca-Cola logos. He signed an exclusive contract with Ileana Sonnabend. In 1962, he made his first trip to the United States, intrigued by artists such as Dine and Kline, and frequented Frank O'Hara, Jasper Johns, Rothko, Andy Warhol, and Gregory Corso. He exhibited at the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York in the exhibition "The New Realists." His solo exhibitions were held in Rome, Paris, and Milan, and he returned to the United States. The artist gained critical acclaim with awards such as the Lissone Prize (Lissone, 1961), the Fiorino Prize, and La Nuova Figurazione (Florence, 1963). In 1963, he broke off his partnership with Ileana Sonnabend , who was disconcerted by the change in his artistic production, so far removed from his early works. His works feature references to Italian art history, including the first Anemic Landscapes, which he presented at the Venice Biennale, where he was invited in 1964, followed by works dedicated to Futurism. His first black-and-white short films, almost always silent, date back to this period. He began his exclusive collaboration with Giorgio Marconi, which lasted until the end of 1970. He participated in international group exhibitions such as the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh in 1964, the 1965 Biennials of San Marino and São Paulo in Brazil, and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. In 1966-67, he conceived the series "Oxygen, Oxygen," "Tuttestelle," "Oasis," and "Compagni, Compagni." In 1967-1969, he presented the feature film Anna Carini Seen in August by Butterflies at Studio Marconi in Milan, followed by the film trilogy Satellite (Human, Non-Human, Transplant, and Consumption and Death by Franco Brocani). He participated in a group exhibition at Galleria La Salita, where he didn't exhibit paintings but instead projected stills of the Vietnam War. It was precisely his interest in contemporary history and his civic engagement that led him to experience such an ideological and identity crisis that he declared his intention to abandon painting. In 1970, together with Tonino Guerra, Carlo Ponti's screenwriter, he went to America for the last time, to carry out location scouting for the film, Laboratorio umano, which was never made. Upon returning to Italy, tired of the slow pace of filmmaking, he began the TV Landscapes series, transferring television images to canvas using photographic emulsion. Initially, he reworked photographs taken in the United States (which would later give rise to works such as The Pentagon, Medal of Honor, Nuclear Era, the Transplant Rooms in Houston, NASA, and Alamo Gordo from the Los Alamos Archives), then the wealth of images broadcast daily and incessantly by television stations. He was not interested in TV culture, but in the culture that develops from the television image. He travels to Laos and Thailand, and later to Africa. In developing his works, the artist prefers the use of industrially produced colours for their ability to retain their initial brilliance and dry quickly, allowing him to paint the image in the rapid instant of its appearance and a more extensive production of works. In 1971 he exhibited at the exhibition Vitality of the negative in Italian art 1960-70, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva; his solo exhibitions were opened in Rome, Parma, Turin and Naples, in 1973 he participated in the X Quadriennale of Rome and in Contemporanea, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva . In 1974, the Palazzo della Pilotta (Salone delle Scuderie) in Parma hosted Schifano's first major retrospective, curated by Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, which allowed the full breadth of his work to be explored. An ideological and existential crisis forced him into periods of isolation in his studio, where he created "d'après" reinterpretations of Magritte, De Chirico, Boccioni, Cézanne, and Picabia. He revisited his own works from the 1960s in the "Synthetic from the Inventory" series. In 1976, he was present at the exhibition Europa/America, l'astrazione determinate 1960-76 held at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Bologna. In 1978, he returned to the Venice Biennale with the series "Al mare" and "Quadri equestri," works painted with extreme grace and lightness, exemplifying a newfound creative freshness. Invited to Arte e critica 1980 at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, in 1981 he participated in the Identité italienne exhibition held at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. From that period were created the series entitled "Architecture," "Cosmetics," "Biplanes," and "Botanical Gardens." His works appeared in the Avanguardia/Transavanguardia exhibition at the Mura Aureliane in 1982. Marco Meneguzzo curated a solo exhibition of his work at the Loggia Lombardesca in Ravenna. He conceived a series of large-scale paintings, including Bicycles and Dancers. He was also featured at the Venice Biennale. In 1984, he was invited back to the Venice Biennale, and at the same time, Alain Cueff presented the "Naturale sconosciuto" (Unknown Natural) series at the Piombi, revealing his particular attention to nature. This gave rise to the water lilies, the wheat fields, the waves... the sand paintings in the desert for the exhibition in Jordan; even the canvases donated to Gibellina after the earthquake stemmed from this new, seemingly unstoppable impulse. In 1985, in Florence's Piazza Santissima Annunziata, he painted The Chimera, a monumental work measuring four by ten meters, in front of six thousand people, inaugurating the exhibition on the Etruscans. He married Monica De Bei, with whom he had a son, Marco, and his painting became more intense and rich in inspiration. In 1988, the Adrien Maeght Gallery in Paris opened his solo exhibition, "Le secret de la jeunesse éternelle: un Faust dionysiaque." A passionate cycling enthusiast, he is the only Italian to design the yellow jersey for the Tour de France twice. In 1990, after a decade of intense, vibrant, and sumptuous painting, where he produced many of his most moving works (Estroverso da Mazzoli in Modena), he inaugurated the reopening of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome with Divulgare dalla “vulgata” di Dante, referring to the language of television, a collection of exceptionally large works elaborated with the first digital technologies. The reproduced images combine the dimension of the unconscious with the reality filtered daily by television; the works represent new satellite visions, environmental emergencies, and war; few artists have delved as deeply into the recent conflicts in the Middle East as he has. His commitment has extended to creating works in support of the campaigns of Greenpeace, UNHCR, and many volunteer associations. In 1994 he participated in the exhibition The Italian Metamorphosis, 1943-1968, organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York ; in 1996 he exhibited in Spain and Latin America in the show entitled Musa elettricia, a tribute to television understood as an inexhaustible flow of images. The works of these years testify to his interest in science and technology. Stet commissioned him to design the integrated image of the company. Schifano immediately grasped the possibilities of the Internet, which, with its unlimited access, extended the expressive possibilities of the visual arts, and the innovation of optical fibers that speeded up communication, so much so that he dedicated a work to it that became its symbol. During one of his trips to Brazil he organized a happening in the favela of Rio de Janeiro, painting a shack white as a protest against the mayor's order to paint all the favelas green to make them uniform and “invisible”. He died in Rome on January 26, 1998. Quotes (Source IlSole24ore): Since 1995, 2,668 works have been auctioned. The sales rate is 69%. Prices have been rising since 2004, with peaks of $350,000 recorded in 2007 for large-format mixed media on canvas from the 1960s. The artist's market trades very frequently, especially in Italy and Austria, and his prices are uniquely aligned with those of international auctions. The price increase is penalized by the lack of a general catalogue, more than ten years after the artist's death, and by the irreconcilable disagreement between the former Mario Schifano Foundation (now the Multistudio Foundation) and the Mario Schifano Archive established by his heirs. Numerous fakes continue to circulate. In Italy, on 11 March 2008, a work entitled Campo di pane (1984), enamel on canvas, 140 x 210 cm, was sold for €46,000 at Finante Milano. In the gallery, mixed techniques and polaroids from the 80s and 90s are priced from €5,000 to €20,000. Top price : $353,773 for New York City '65 the reverse through the museum (2 parts) (1965), mixed media and enamel on canvas, 220 x 300 cm, sold at Dorotheum Vienna, 29 November 2005.
LONDON: 235 MILLION COLLECTED
Far from the £100 million target! London's October tour de force dedicated to Contemporary art grossed (between Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips) something like £184,416,675, just under €235 million. If we then factor in the 44 masterpieces from the Essl Collection, sold at Christie's, the total soars to £231.2 million. Contemporary art fever is at its peak. Sotheby's, in addition to a historic Italian Sale (£41.3 million), sold for £28.2 million in its Evening Sale. The top price was the living Informal master Pierre Soulages (2,658,500). At Christie's, Evening set five records for super-emerging artists (Joe Bradley, Rachel Whiteread, Toby Ziegler, Brent Wadden, and Louis Eisner). Fourteen lots sold for over £1 million. Three sold for over £2 million. And three sold for over £4 million. The top price was the fifty-year-old Peter Doig (4,562,500). Second and third place went to Gerhard Richter (4,450,500) and Jean-Michel Basquiat with Love Dub for A (4,338,500). GUN ITALIAN STYLE In the Day Sales, in addition to the minor works by historic Italians (all sold), Michelangelo Pistoletto rose significantly with a 1971 multiple (The Turkish Bath), whose 75/150 example started at 9,000 and stopped at 26,250 pounds. The two Blu paintings by Marcello Lo Giudice, present in the major sales and estimated at 24-36,000, totaled 101,250 pounds. At Phillips (which grossed 20 million with the first two auctions in the new venue at 30 Berkeley Square) the photographic print by Paola Pivi was sold for 17,500 pounds. Now, after the excitement of London, while awaiting the big November auctions in New York, our enthusiasts and collectors can relax with Italian auctions. Between Rome, Genoa, Florence, Prato, and Vercelli, the offerings are rich and varied. Farsetti (www.farsettiarte.it) offers a significant catalog, with a selection of works of historical and artistic interest, in the wake of signs of recovery in the antiques market. HIM AND HER PISTOL On Thursday the 30th and Friday the 31st, the catalog features antique furniture and paintings. Among these are a Flagellation of Christ by Luca Giordano (€20,000-€30,000) and a View of Rome painted in 1855 by Ippolito Caffi (€18,000-€24,000). Saturday will feature paintings and sculptures from the 19th and 20th centuries. Among the works by the Macchiaioli, the large L'Arno alle Cascine by Giovanni Fattori (€280,000-€350,000). In Florence, Pandolfini (www.pandolfini.it) is celebrating its 90th anniversary with a special sale showcasing the best of every department. A significant collection of Renaissance majolica, gathered in a single catalog, has already attracted considerable interest from foreign customers (including museums). Also on the Arno, Bibelot (www.maisonbibelot.com) is offering furnishings and paintings from Villa Pandolfi in Florence on Thursday and Friday. Proceeds will be donated to the Salesian Institute for the Missions in Turin. PHOTOGRAPHS In Genoa, the event is twofold: with modern and contemporary art, photography, and design at Boetto (www.asteboetto.it) and with furniture, old master paintings, and 19th and 20th-century paintings at Cambi (www.cambiaste.com). The auction house, located in Castello Mackenzie, offers four unmissable catalogs with attractive estimates. Michelangelo Pistoletto There are 1,800 lots of furniture and art objects, approximately 360 19th-century and ancient paintings, including a large Venetian Market by Stefano Novo (15,000-20,000) and a portrait attributed to Bernardo Strozzi (35,000-40,000). The eight sessions that Meeting Art (www.meetingart.it) will dedicate to antiques (furniture and paintings) will begin on Saturday, November 1st, and run until the 13th. This Saturday (lots 109 and 110) are offering two large Vertical Landscapes by Vittorio Amedeo Cignaroli, formerly part of prestigious collections and auctioned at Christie's in 2002. Prices start at €16,000 and €25,000. Finally, starting tomorrow, the Roman auction house Babuino (www.astebabuino.it) will offer art and paintings from Roman collections, furnishings, Chinese and Asian art, silver, jewelry, and collectibles. In short, there's something for every taste and budget.
Collecting art
Accumulating and collecting works and objects of art is a way of transforming money into something that allows us to secure the values that have marked history and culture. It is also a way of establishing a position of prestige, almost aristocratic, by privileged people who can afford such a luxurious operation. It establishes a double aesthetic in which the pleasure of things translates into a landscape of oneself.
The state of the art today? Guttuso explained it 50 years ago.
In the Sicilian master's articles, the portrait of intellectual conformism: taking sides for convenience, the aversion towards the figurative, the obtuse xenophilia And it wasn't just homework, but a mature text, the one on the Futurist Pippo Rizzo. During the twenty years of the Futurist movement, the young Guttuso contributed to important publications such as Primato, a creation of Minister Bottai, with prominent contributions delivered with an incredible self-assurance that led him to engage in polemics even with friends and teachers. He didn't pay for his immodesty with scorched earth, as would happen today in the touchy, mafia-like world of art, but rather grew increasingly in general esteem. In the articles collected by Bompiani in this small monument (almost two thousand pages, €50) simply titled Scritti, the level of cultural debate, which we can only dream of today, and the great freedom of judgment, are astonishing. But weren't these the times of the ferocious regime? Probably in the 1930s it was enough to declare oneself a fascist, just as in the 1950s it was enough to declare oneself a communist, and then one could say and do what one wanted. Of course, the toll of flattery was heavy: "Our greatest joy is realizing every moment that we are in too good agreement with Mussolini," Guttuso declared in 1934. Later, changing colors but not attitude, he wrote with a thousand reverences: "Comrade Tortorella" (culture director of Berlinguer's PCI), "Comrade Sciaurov" (who was he?), "Comrade Napolitano" (this one, however, I seem to recognize)... With the cunning of a successful artist, he paid homage to the tyranny of the moment to guarantee his own freedom. During the dark years of Togliatti's reign, Guttuso managed to circumvent Soviet-derived socialist realism with specious, yet effective, arguments. Thus, in Moscow, he was able to win the Lenin Prize, in Rome, the countesses, participate in communist congresses in Poland, and in high society life in Italy. Today's painters are not as flexible, as cunning, or even as literate, and therefore their works will remain, but not a single line (in half a century, I'm a ready prophet, no Bompiani will collect their emails, posts, and tweets in an anthology). Yet, if you look closely, almost nothing has changed. For starters, relationships still matter, and the reserved artist who lives in seclusion today, as then, can cling to the tram. Political parties matter less, undeniably, but a left-wing stance is always beneficial. If he had remained a fascist after the war, Guttuso would have struggled to become a city councilor, while unwavering communist orthodoxy guaranteed him a seat in the Senate, which added prestige to prestige and certainly didn't lower his standing. Even in the 1970s, it wasn't healthy to appear conservative, much less reactionary. On the occasion of a "return to painting" (a constant in the Italian art scene, where painting returns every decade because no one pays attention to the fact that it never left), a couple of critics with zealous progressive conformism accused the figurative genre of being, as such, right-wing. In the pages of L'Espresso, Guttuso reacted like a lion to defend his own history and the autonomy of art: "Painting human figures with a brush is, in itself, neither regressive nor progressive." Decades pass and not even the Biennale has changed: in 1953, the prince of Italian painters complained about the lack of space given to Italian artists, an article that could have appeared unchanged in 2003 or early 2013. And given the perennial xenophilia of the institutions responsible, I'm certain it could be published, with minimal changes, in 2023. Also timeless is the reasonable proposal to abolish the provinces, useless since the days of Berta, and a denunciation of the rampant overbuilding of Sicily that could appear tomorrow in the same newspaper, the Corriere della Sera, perhaps signed by Gian Antonio Stella. More than Guttuso, in the pages of the third part of the book, entitled "Civil Commitment and Defense of Artistic Heritage," one seems to hear Ecclesiastes speaking: "Nihil sub sole novi." Reading the articles opposing the loans of delicate paintings and priceless statues, I had to rub my eyes and check the signature: they seem to be written by Tomaso Montanari, the anti-Renzi art historian who, however, was little more than a child when the transportability of the Riace Bronzes was first being discussed. I also rub my brain, and it occurs to me that during the years of Guttuso's righteous indignation over the ruin of landscapes and museums, Berlusconi wasn't even around, much less his minister Bondi, who at a certain point seemed to be responsible for every collapse, every trade, every insensitivity. Guttuso unwittingly reminds us that the attack on Italy's artistic heritage is at least as old a history as the Italian Republic itself.